PROPAGATION BY LAYERS AND RUNNERS 71 



themselves. It is a ready means of multiplying hard-wooded 

 plants that do not grow well from cuttings. 



All vines, and plants with runners or long and slender shoots 

 that fall to the ground, may be multiplied readily by layerage. 

 Among fruits, the black-cap raspberry and dewberry are familiar 

 examples. The raspberry canes of the current year bend over 

 late in summer and the tips strike the earth. If the tip is 

 secured by a slight covering of earth, or if it finds lodgment 

 in a mellow soil, roots are formed, and in autumn a strong bud 

 or "crown" or "eye" is devel- 

 oped for next year's growth. 

 The parent cane is severed in fall 

 or spring, some 4 or 6 inches above 

 the ground, and an independent 

 plant, known as a "root-tip," as 

 shown in Fig. 60, is obtained. In 

 this example, as in most others, 

 it is immaterial at what point 



,i . j FIG. 60. Raspberry tip. 



the parent stem is severed, except 



that a short piece of it serves as a handle in carrying the 

 plant, and also marks the position of the plant when it is 

 set. The black raspberry propagates itself naturally by means 

 of these layers, and it is only necessary, in most cases, to bring 

 the earth into a mellow condition when the tips begin to touch 

 the ground, in order that they may find anchorage. This 

 layering by inserting the growing point has the advantage of 

 producing very strong "crowns" or plants in autumn from 

 shoots or canes of the same year, and it should be more 

 generally practiced. Even currants, gooseberries and many 

 other plants can be propagated in this way. 



In most kinds of layerage, it is necessary to bend down the 

 branches and to cover them. The covering may be continuous, 

 as in Fig. 61, or it may be applied only to the joints or re- 

 stricted parts of the shoot, as illustrated in Fig. 62. In either 



